One of the weekend’s more absurd headlines that seemed to pass with relatively little fanfare: A MAGA Republican congressman from Wisconsin, who is also the current GOP candidate for governor in the state, was in a plane that crashed into a lake, only for everyone involved to apparently just dust themselves off and walk away unscathed.
Rep. Tom Tiffany has represented a solidly red district of his state since 2020, and received a literal crash course Saturday on why one might not choose to charter a light plane in order to get out of driving a few hours after dinner. He had apparently attended a dinner event in La Crosse County earlier in the evening, and then rather than drive home to the Wausau area of rural central Wisconsin, he instead boarded a private flight on a Beechcraft K35 prop plane. Said flight then reportedly lost power during its descent to Wausau Downtown Airport, forcing the pilot to decide to ditch it into the adjacent Lake Wausau. Incredibly, neither the pilot nor Tiffany–the only other person aboard–was somehow hurt in that crash landing. In the words of the congressman himself, “As the plane began to submerge, we exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area, where we waited until emergency responders reached us by boat.” Rescuers were apparently on the scene by boat within 15 minutes, and Tiffany received only a few stitches for a laceration above his eye and was released from a medical facility the same night.
It was a rather incredible twist of luck for a man who is, by plenty of measures, among the worst of GOP representatives in the Freedom Caucus. A close Donald Trump ally, Tom Tiffany is among other things an election denier who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, and was one of only 14 House Republicans to vote against legislation to establish Juneteenth as a federal holiday. For good measure, he also supported letting the Affordable Care Act tax credit subsidies expire, directly raising the cost of insurance premiums for millions of Americans. Swell guy, all told, and apparently a fated one as well. His Democratic opponent in the upcoming gubernatorial election during the 2026 midterms, David Crowley, extended an olive branch in a post online, saying that he was “grateful to God that Congressman Tiffany and no one else was hurt in this horrifying incident, which could have been a tragedy if not for the heroism of the pilot.” One wonders if Tiffany would have bothered extending the same warm and cheery wishes to a Democratic rival.
But screw all those bothersome facts! Can’t we somehow make this into a vile Democratic conspiracy? And the answer there is “it’s 2026; of course this can be the source of conspiracy theories.” Immediately in the wake of the story breaking, and Tiffany confirming online that he was unhurt in the incident, the Twitter conspiracy engine immediately revved to life as it inevitably does in these scenarios. Please enjoy some of the best, which I’ve thoughtfully gathered below.
“I don’t have any evidence or reason to believe this, but I’m instantly convinced that some Democratic staffer who knows light planes was tinkering with the control panel.” I also like how this guy asks for God’s protection, but only specifically so Tom Tiffany can then use his powers to protect the real golden goose, Donald Trump.
Is this … a left-wing conspiracist, suggesting that they intentionally crashed the plane with a member of Congress in it, so that he could garner sympathy and people would think that Tom Tiffany was “special”? It’s a good reminder that neither end of the horseshoe wants to be left out of the conspiracy fun and games.
When in doubt, always ask yourself: Is there anything from 2008’s Iron Man that might be relevant to a potential conspiracy? Of course, you might also want to cross-reference with 2012’s Flight or 2016’s Sully?
